I’ve never come across a business unwilling to boast about its corporate responsibility efforts. My inbox is stuffed with press releases from companies about the epic bike rides, marathons, mountain ascents and trips deep into the developing world that their employees have undertaken in aid of their charity of the year.

Sometimes, the PR agencies hired to produce these releases overlook some of the more basic details of the partnership. As they get carried away with business jargon and PR fluff, they can forget to include essential stuff like how much was raised and how. But they are usually more than happy to go and find out the fundamentals needed for a news story – the who, what, where, when, why and how – even though they might not know the answers at first and it can take a while to get them. Read more on A cagey PR strategy can be counter-productive…

When SOS Children’s Villages said it wanted to trial face-to-face fundraising in Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the Americas, the idea was dismissed as crazy.

Juan Cruz Mones Cazon, development and communications director for the charity in Latin America and the Caribbean, says his colleagues in the region’s vibrant not-for-profit sector told him it would not work.

Doorstep fundraising seems to be the quieter, less boisterous, older sister of street fundraising.

While the so-called ‘chuggers’ who collect direct debit sign-ups in high streets have been getting into trouble with the media and now face fines for breaking fundraising rules, those doing house-to-house collections have been quietly getting on with it in the background.